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"Big Brother" Trashing the 4th Amendment - Anyone Care?
Posted on: February 26, 2020 at 17:59:57 CT
kp83 MU
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Please read through this rather lengthy email. The law that allows the federal government to spy on American citizens is up for renewal, and it is important that the electorate takes this opportunity to protect our rights.
The Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect against intrusions by an out-of-control federal government into the private lives of American citizens, reining in the police state powers that would otherwise be unleashed against us given the truism that power corrupts. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was sold to the Congress and the public as a way to intercept the communications of agents of foreign governments and terrorist groups, not those of U.S. citizens. But amendments to the original FISA law, passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon have allowed the government to essentially surveil anyone, foreign or domestic. This is done through NSA collection of all electronic communications by U.S. citizens and legal residents they can acquire (phone calls, emails, etc.), information that is stored and can then later be accessed via the Star Chamber proceedings of a FISA court. But it is even worse than that. In one of the most important but hardly reported-upon reports in recent years, FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer’s April 2017 report showed that 85% of inquiries into the NSA database were non-compliant, and FBI contractors were illegally accessing the database. Who were those contractors accessing this information? They’ve kept that classified. What were they using the data for? Political opposition research? Blackmail? Extortion? They’ve also kept that secret.
If your are concerned about protecting your 4th Amendment rights, please take the time to contact your congressman. For your “cut and paste” convience, below is the message I have left with Hawley, Blunt and Wagner.
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I am writing in regards to reauthorization of FISA. FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer and James Boasberg both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons. The recent Horowitz report further revealed abuse of the FISA process. The fourth amendment is being violated by the continued abuse of bulk metadata collection, and both government officials and outside contractors illegally accessing the system. The American public has not been notified of any corrective action taken by the intelligence community that has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court, and the public has a right to know to what extent FISA is being used to violate our 4th Amendment rights. Therefore, I urge you to advocate for the following as a prerequisite to consideration of FISA reauthorization:
• Reveal the November 2015 through April 2016 FISA-702 search query abuse by declassifying in its entirety the April 2017 court opinion written by FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. In particular, the American public is entitled to know the identity of the FBI contractors behind the 85% fraudulent search queries.
• Release a fully declassified and unredacted version of the 2019 Judge Boasberg report.
• The DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court needs to be made public. To better understand the scale of the FISA abuse and its consequences, the public should be informed of the upstream sequester material in particular.
I understand the provisions of the Patriot Act and the FISA process can be powerful tools to fight foreign terrorists who would do harm here in America. However, without a full public vetting and significant reform of the FISA process, I fear the loss of our 4th Amendment rights more than the loss of these tools. Without significant reform, I oppose reauthorization of the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)] components of the Patriot Act.
I hope to hear your voice in standing up for our 4th Amendment rights, calling for the release of the documents specified above, and sounding your opposition to FISA reauthorization without a thorough public vetting process.
The Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect against intrusions by an out-of-control federal government into the private lives of American citizens, reining in the police state powers that would otherwise be unleashed against us given the truism that power corrupts. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was sold to the Congress and the public as a way to intercept the communications of agents of foreign governments and terrorist groups, not those of U.S. citizens. But amendments to the original FISA law, passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon have allowed the government to essentially surveil anyone, foreign or domestic. This is done through NSA collection of all electronic communications by U.S. citizens and legal residents they can acquire (phone calls, emails, etc.), information that is stored and can then later be accessed via the Star Chamber proceedings of a FISA court. But it is even worse than that. In one of the most important but hardly reported-upon reports in recent years, FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer’s April 2017 report showed that 85% of inquiries into the NSA database were non-compliant, and FBI contractors were illegally accessing the database. Who were those contractors accessing this information? They’ve kept that classified. What were they using the data for? Political opposition research? Blackmail? Extortion? They’ve also kept that secret.
If your are concerned about protecting your 4th Amendment rights, please take the time to contact your congressman. For your “cut and paste” convience, below is the message I have left with Hawley, Blunt and Wagner.
--------------------------------
I am writing in regards to reauthorization of FISA. FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer and James Boasberg both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons. The recent Horowitz report further revealed abuse of the FISA process. The fourth amendment is being violated by the continued abuse of bulk metadata collection, and both government officials and outside contractors illegally accessing the system. The American public has not been notified of any corrective action taken by the intelligence community that has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court, and the public has a right to know to what extent FISA is being used to violate our 4th Amendment rights. Therefore, I urge you to advocate for the following as a prerequisite to consideration of FISA reauthorization:
• Reveal the November 2015 through April 2016 FISA-702 search query abuse by declassifying in its entirety the April 2017 court opinion written by FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. In particular, the American public is entitled to know the identity of the FBI contractors behind the 85% fraudulent search queries.
• Release a fully declassified and unredacted version of the 2019 Judge Boasberg report.
• The DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court needs to be made public. To better understand the scale of the FISA abuse and its consequences, the public should be informed of the upstream sequester material in particular.
I understand the provisions of the Patriot Act and the FISA process can be powerful tools to fight foreign terrorists who would do harm here in America. However, without a full public vetting and significant reform of the FISA process, I fear the loss of our 4th Amendment rights more than the loss of these tools. Without significant reform, I oppose reauthorization of the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)] components of the Patriot Act.
I hope to hear your voice in standing up for our 4th Amendment rights, calling for the release of the documents specified above, and sounding your opposition to FISA reauthorization without a thorough public vetting process.
Please explain why this message is being reported.
MESSAGE THREAD
"Big Brother" Trashing the 4th Amendment - Anyone Care? - kp83 MU - 2/26 17:59:57
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